Chapter 54 - June 13, 2012

Hi everybody, sometimes we're our own worst critic.  I keep hearing over and 
over and over again Brian don't be so hard on yourself. I have to be patient. 
Last week I saw my new neurologist that specializes in seizure.  I've picked a 
neurologist that's closers to home. The best news I got out of the meeting was she 
said I could drink regular coffee and have chocolate now and then.  Other than 
that, it was pretty much the same thing.  She wants me to do a blood test to check 
my medicine levels.  She didn't change anything.  If anything, I'm on the minimum

amount of anti seizure medicine.  

I wanted to include an email I got from a friend.  He's a cinematographer who 
went with me to Greenland.  Pace Editions sponsored a father son trip to 
Greenland. My father and I did the trip together.  He painted the icebergs and I 
photographed them. It was a great thing to do. We had a show of the work after 
we came back.  I'm going to include the special video portrait of what was shot there.

First,  Here's his email:

Brian, I printed out your entire blog and read it all at once
 yesterday, it was a really amazing experience.  Various themes stand 
out more clearly when you read that many posts all together, such as 
Water, Patience, Calmness.  

It made me remember some things from Greenland through that prism:

Just
 the blue, the neon blue of those icebergs on that first overcast 
afternoon.  Floating, drifting along and all we had to do was breath the air
 and paint and photograph and film.  It was so quiet and calm, awe 
inspiring and peaceful like I'd never 
felt before.  I think of that whenever I need a moment of clarity.

The water dripping off the melting ice, running down the side of a giant berg 
as we held out a flask to catch it and brew up some coffee.  I mean, 
come on, Iceberg Coffee?!  Unbelievable.  

Stopping randomly because Don just had to paint the view of Ilulissat 
and you telling me that this is how it always was, even when you were 
growing up.  You'd travel around Europe and as an antsy little kid you would 
have to sit there patiently while he whipped out his watercolor sketch 
book and threw down another masterpiece of whatever happened to strike 
his fancy.  

I loved seeing the cartoon you posted, it reminded me of the ones 
you did during that trip, I have such a vivid memory of them even though I 
haven't seen them since.  If you could post them someday that would make
 me the happiest kid in the city. 

Best 
Adam Hall

The email summarizes the trip. It makes me realize how much fun I had with my 
father. It all went by so quick. 

I'm going to make this a short one, but tell a quick story. I'm going to go off on 
a tangent here.

I was living in Australia off Manly beach. I had a big dinner party. I got 
really drunk (how unusual) anyway I promised all my friends I would give a big 
Thanksgiving dinner. When I woke up the next morning (with a big hangover) my wife 
at the time reminded me I promised to cook a big Thanksgiving dinner.

Well, I tried to keep to my promise and I did the Thanksgiving dinner.  My first 
step was to get a big turkey. Not easy to do in Australia. Never even thought 
about it. I couldn't find one anywhere. A friend finally suggested I call the 
American Embassy for advice.  They said "No way mate. We over ordered some 
turkeys. You can have one of ours. Go ahead and pick it up at the butcher." So I 
did. I went to their butcher and picked up the turkey.  It was huge, I asked the 
guy, "Are you sure that's not an emu?" I'd never seen such a big bird in my life. It 
hardly fit in my car. Then I got home and looked at my oven, and then at the 
bird, and then the oven.  I thought it's never going to fit. I took out almost all 
of the racks, put the bird in.  The door wouldn't close, so I got the tinfoil and 
bridged the gap.  It took 2 rolls of big tinfoil to bridge the gap.  The door 
was more than half open.  Well I cooked that bird for about 14 hours. I think we 
drank a case of wine waiting for it to be done.  By 3 am the bird was finished.  We 
were too.  We could have eaten the couch and it would have tasted fantastic.  
We were ripped but we had a great Thanksgiving.  By the way, the bird tasted 
real good, but I'm pretty sure it was an emu. 

I was awoken by a noise about 4:30 am.  There was something in the trash 
trying to get the turkey carcass I think.  I was inches from the window looking down 
trying to see what was in the garbage.  I had a funny feeling.  I looked up and 
about 2 inches from my face was another face. It was looking at me. It had its 
hands on the window it scared the hell out of me.  I screamed raised my hands 
up, it did the same thing. It screamed and raised its hands. It fell out of the 
tree, I fell on my bed.  It turned out to be a tree kangaroo.  It wasn't hurt. It 
helped its friend grab something from the trash and ran into the woods. I 
checked my shorts.

Please watch the video by Michelle Icahn and let me know what you think.  Love, B. Nice